UGANDA, Bunyangabu | Real Muloodi News | The government has granted over 4,000 free mailo land titles to vulnerable families and institutions in Bunyangabu District, to protect them from illegal eviction.
Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja presented the titles to the beneficiaries on Saturday, 4th March 2023, at the Kibiito Secondary School playground.
The move allows the families to graduate from being occupants on mailo land, formerly comprised of Bunyangabu Block 44, Plot 20, measuring 3,155 acres, to now being registered landowners.
The land originally belonged to the private estate of Patrick David Mathew Kaboyo, who was the Omukama of Toro and later to Queen Mother Best Kemigisa, the administrator of the estate of the late Kaboyo.
The Government paid Kemigisa and transferred the land to the Uganda Land Commission (ULC) on February 19, 2009.
Another parcel on Block 32, Plot 1 belonging to Mushtaq Abdulah Bhegani was also paid for by the Government using the Land Fund and transferred to the ULC on May 2, 2011.
The beneficiaries included over 4,000 families and 50 institutions, with institutional land accounting for 92 beneficiaries, including schools, health centres, markets, parks, faith-based institutions, forests, wetlands, and road reserves.
The government achieved this by resolving the issue of multiple rights on the same piece of land.
President Museveni, in a speech delivered by Nabbanja, urged the citizens to avoid land fragmentation, stating that land is a means of enhancing productivity, whereas subdividing it indiscriminately contributes to rural poverty, food insecurity, and conflicts.
Furthermore, Nabbanja added that resolving this issue would lead to sustainable development, improved land management, and security of tenure in both rural and urban areas.
She also stated that the 2021 National Resistance Movement (NRM) party election manifesto promised to protect landowners countrywide by issuing them with a government document (certificate of ownership) as part of reassuring them that no one could take their land from them.
Nabbanja said that this program under the Land Fund goes hand in hand with the Parish Development Model (PDM) and should motivate residents to use their land productively, especially since they have fertile soils and adequate rainfall. She urged the beneficiaries to grow improved and fast-maturing cash crops to join the money economy as promised by the NRM government in the National Development Program III.
The Premier also cautioned government officials against mishandling PDM funds, saying that the government is now freeing the land from disputes due to multiple rights.
She asked leaders to facilitate the new landowners using PDM funds to get out of the subsistence economy.
Nabbanja said that the Government would continue to inject money into the Land Fund as promised in the NRM manifesto.
Lands Minister Judith Nabakooba explained that the exercise is a key NRM election manifesto program, which will help sort out land disputes arising from multiple interests on one piece of land.
The titles are intended to promote land tenure security and protect landowners from eviction.
She added that the NRM government has brought in the PDM, and under its first pillar, which talks about production, storage, value addition, and marketing the new landlords are expected to use their land to fight poverty through commercial agriculture since it is free of disputes.
Nabakooba stated that, for the entire Toro Sub-region, the government, through the Land Fund, has acquired a total of 30,370 acres, equivalent to 48 square miles. The beneficiaries comprise 22.4% females and 77.6% males.
In total, the government has used the Land Fund to acquire 334,458 acres, equivalent to 523 square miles of land across the entire country as part of the government’s strategy to stop illegal land evictions.
The acting Secretary of the Uganda Land Commission, Andrew Nyumba, revealed that the titles given out consisted of land on Block 44 Plot 2 in Kibiito and Block 32 Plot 1 in Nyakigumba, both measuring 5.2 square miles. The government paid for the plots in full under the land fund.
Although the land titles have been distributed, other individuals are still living on land as squatters in Ruboona, Buheesi, Kiyombya, and Rwetuha, according to Bunyangabu District Chairperson, James Ategeka. He called on the government to consider them under the land fund.
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